Feelin Knobby

Sorry I’ve been out lately.  I hate that.  I have all these great post ideas floating around in my head and then I sit down to blog and all I want to do is hack up a lung and go to sleep.  Yup.  I have bronchitis.  again.  So far, that is the fourth time in this pregnancy….and technically speaking, I have only known I was pregnant since January….so that is an average of once a month for being down and out.  I hate complaining about it when I am in the thick of it…but since I knew you were missing me like crazy, I thought I would let you know  Apparently, I don’t get morning sickness but I catch everything else while I am baby-laden.  Also….pee-pads are my friend.  Just thought since I was sharing…..

Anyhoo….I know a lot of you were asking about the kitchen hardware when I shared the kitchen basement photos…

I am really REALLY happy with them.  And they weren’t that expensive.

Originally I started looking for black hardware because I am a fan of black hardware on white cabinetry….obviously….

this is our upstairs kitchen…

Isn’t the contrast so great?  I love it.  But in the upstairs I was going for a more traditional vibe and in the basement, I want more rustic/industrial.  That is what landed me on having only pulls.  I love the sleek black pulls with shaker style doors.  I looked all over the place for the right ones at the right price.  Here are some of the options that I found…

Ikea also has some options and they are ok but honestly, they all just seemed like ‘eh’ to me.  Maybe it was the pregnancy brain.  I just didn’t feel like they had much personality or much detail and the prices were kinda high for simple black pulls, right?!

So my brain process went like this….black….simple….not too plain….price under $5 a piece…and under 5″ spread.  I needed a 5″ spread because I wanted them all to be the exact same and the smallest cabinet I had in the kitchen only allowed for 5″.

I found exactly what I was looking for on Amazon.  Weird, huh?!

It was like finding Nicki Manaj in a twerking dance studio….oh wait….

So, Amazon….here are the pulls I bought.  They are the Franklin Brass Soft Iron 5-Inch Francisco Drawer Pulls.  You do have to buy in bulk….groups of 10….and so I needed 23.  That means that I bought three packs of ten (total=$62.37) and since I only needed 23 of them, per piece I priced them at $2.72.  Not too shabby, huh?!  Much better than the six dollar version!

They came in a box with groups of ten packaged together.

The pull itself is really nice.  It’s big enough for a man’s hand to grab….this is my hand…not a mans….but thank you anyway….

And I like that it has a little extra detail of the ‘cuff’ on the pull bar.  It adds just enough interest for me while still looking industrial.

I installed it with a home-made template.  I simply measured the full length of the pull against a piece of paper and cut it to length.  Then I marked the center of the holes because I wanted the bottom edge of the hardware to line up with the shaker door detail.  Then I measured the center of the vertical parts and marked where my paper should line up with the edge of the shaker door.  I know that is weird to describe so just look at this picture….

It was super simple to install….just drill holes for the doors and screw in.  The drawers were a little more complicated but Jeremy bought a countersink drill bit (here is the one he got) and it worked like a charm for those thicker drawer fronts.  We just recently learned about countersink drill bits….yeah….somehow we missed that memo….but now that we have one, it’s like Pandora’s box is opened.

So that’s our cabinet door hardware in the basement.  Super exciting.

Also…I have some more posts about this space but tomorrow I really want to share a fun random project.  I think you will really like it….I know I do!  Off to cough up a lung!  Wish me luck